Confessions have long been part of China’s legal landscape, with petty criminals routinely admitting their guilt on television.

But rarely have senior business figures been put on television in orange prison jumpsuits to confess.

“If involuntary to any degree, the admissibility of the confessions is in question,” said James Zimmerman, a managing partner at law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce China.